Series creator Robert Kirkman will serve as an exec producer on the offshoot, alongside fellow EPs Gale Anne Hurd and David Alpert.

“Building on the success of the most popular show on television for adults 18-49 is literally a no-brainer,” said AMC prez Charlie Collier in a statement. “We look forward to working with Robert, Gale and Dave again as we develop an entirely new story and cast of characters. It’s a big world and we can’t wait to give fans another unforgettable view of the zombie apocalypse.”

Added Kirkman: “After 10 years of writing the comic book series and being so close to the debut of our fourth, and in my opinion, best season of the TV series, I couldn’t be more thrilled about getting the chance to create a new corner of The Walking Dead universe. The opportunity to make a show that isn’t tethered by the events of the comic book, and is truly a blank page, has set my creativity racing.”

My hope is that it will look more at the macro world, as opposed to TWD’s micro world- basically, something on the government level, or with scientists so we can learn more about how this started, who is still alive, and if there’s any hope for TWD universe… or if this is the new normal.

Perhaps the spinoff could take us back to the initial outbreak, to ground zero. Many Walking Dead fans who exercise this thing called a brain want a rational explanation as to how a ragtag group including women, children and old men can survive the zombie apocalypse for nearly a year, yet the whole of civilization has been destroyed by shambling, rotting corpses whose only weapon is their teeth. Even if you grant that anyone who dies comes back a zombie, that would mean that zombies were outnumbered roughly 42,000 to 1 when it started, based on the average number of people who die in the U.S. each day. And with 100 million guns in the U.S. alone, I don’t give the zombies much of a chance, especially when a 12 year old kid can take out 3 in 30 seconds with a crowbar.

So yeah, how about the spinoff starts by telling us how the country fell apart so completely and so quickly. (And please don’t tell me about the Battle of Yonkers in WWZ. That was just silly.) About the only plausible scenario would be if on day 1 a biological weapon killed MILLIONS of people who then came back as zombie and took everyone by surprise and by sheer numbers. THAT I want to see.

In our universe we all know the rules about the living dead so ya the living should win the fight. In the walking dead universe it is all a complete surprise. No one has any idea what the rules are. If on the 1st day your wife gits bit do you shoot her in the head, no you try and treat her minor wound and when she turns you get bit because you dont know the rules. theres a learning curve that dooms the living. Remember if its 100 living and 50 walkers living stop 20 than its 100 to 30 but let 20 living get bit the sides are now 80 to 70 not 80 to 50. The human race has had countless wars but no army has ever faced the challenge of an enemy that gets stronger by 1 for every one that thay kill and facing an enemy with no fear or sence of self preservation they dont break off under withering fire thay just keep coming.

You also have to remember that most grocery stores carry a 3-5 day supply of food most pharmacies also only order stock from a warehouse as on hand supplies get used. Toss in the disruption of food and medicine supply lines then very busy gas satations that normally get multiple tanker deliveries to fill the underground tanks each week run out of gas.

Most disasters quickly have an influx of emergency supplies and volunteers start coming in from unafected parts of the country in less than a week. Without that flow of supplies, food , meds people the death toll from those injured and not treated, death for people that need certain medications, and starvation if no food coming into an area. Less than a month after a zombie outbreak if supply lines are cut off, I can see a big explosion in the number of daily deaths. add in over crowded temporary camps of survivors with no supplies coming in and possibly few people that know how to set up propper sanitary procedures in that setting and diseases of opportunity that can kill quickly can up the daily death toll. Normallty minor medical conditions can turn deadly if antibiotics are not handy.

Add on top of that there woulod be a steep learning curve that people that die come back anywhere from 3 minutes to 8 hours after dying. A place could very quickly get over run. Especially if the dead start coming back at night when most people are asleep. Bodies that don’t come back for several hours. There could be a large number of the dead in a rerfridgerated truck , say they have a large number of dead in the temporary morgue from the first round of deaths from the illness. Then no deaths for several hours.Then the next person dies from the illness and the door of the truck is opened. The person opening the door gets hit by all the dead in the truck. Then the dead head for the sleeping survivors camp. How long is it going to take people to wake up then comprhend what is happening?

Most emergency medical camps or desiginated buildings for disaster survivors to stay in during an emergency don’t allow people to bring firearms into them. So , unless there are police or National Guard present there would be no firearms for protection of the aide stations.

Think about natural disasters like Katrina, Sandy hurricanes. Tornado hits like Greensburg, Ks, More, Ok and Joplin , Missouri. With emergency personal and supplies starting to trickle in hours or days after. What if other parts of the state or neighboring states are in the same disaster situation and the whole country is battling their own disaster at the same time? Number of deaths are going to go up quickly

I think one thing you are forgetting is that anyone who dies automatically turns. So if the entire human race was infected, that means a potential of 150k zombies each day just from people passing away. That sort of changes the equation a bit.

So at first, when people started dying then turning, it would have been a complete surprise as people passed away and suddenly “rose from the dead”, attacking and biting more people, infecting them, etc. It could have gotten out of control very quickly.

A long time ago,millions of years ago,the dinosaurs were thought to be extinct by a meteor impact and died after.What if that wasnt the case and the dinosaurs were killed by a virus or bacterie that ever since the downfall of the dinos went into slumber and needed the right conditions the remerge again only this time in humans.The virus or bacterie doesnt kill you,the fever does.What would happen if you were able to survive the fever?Would that be a chance for humanity to survive a little longer.Remember it doesnt tell us that the fever survivor couldnt be reinfected with that same fever.The normal day flu is a good example.

yes ads on television shows make the studios money. the advertisers big money go to the tv shows with the highest audiences in certain demos, which the walking dead is one of. i get what you mean by us not technically giving them OUR money though my bad for the error.

There are states in the NorthEast that have a vert tight hold on gun control.So, there would be fewer guns for people to use. Winters slow zombies down so that would be a plus for those that live where there are good winters.

When my husband & I watch the show, he’s always saying, “I wish they’d show what’s going on in other parts of the world…..surely there’s other groups like Rick’s”. I couldn’t WAIT to show him this article!!

In a thread where the majority of comments seem pleased with this news and positive about the idea, don’t you think your first sentence seems kinda dumb? Tip for the future, opinions and facts are not necessarily the same thing.

There is a difference between being open to the idea, and actually wanting a spin off, if you had asked people yesterday if they would have wanted TWD spin off, most people would have said, no. Especially if it is going to be the exact same show, but only with new faces. Seemed to be a mixed reception to me given the comments.

Wow, sounds like somebody’s cranky. I don’t know what thread you’re reading, but the reception doesn’t seem to be a resounding celebration to me. Seems pretty much a mixed bag. I’m not a huge spin-off fan. For example, I love Once Upon a Time, but don’t know if I’ll watch Wonderland. Unless they can come up with a truly fresh approach, a lot of spin-offs come off as rehashes and recycled story ideas.

What about spinoff shows like NCIS.CSI,Law and Order?I watch several of these spinoff shows ande they are stand alone shows that focus enough on different aspects of things covered in the original shows. There is a large variety of directions they can take the spinoff. The dynamic can change so much by the personality and backgrounds of the new people. One thing I like about The Walking Dead is they don’t go for cheap and shallow stereotypes. They focus on the way people are shaped by their background and how they adapt to the new situation to survive.

As long as they come up with an original concept for this and it’s not just another version of Walking Dead (which I trust the producers to do), I think this’ll be awesome. That means not just another group like Rick’s. It would need to be a totally different post-zombie apocalypse concept.

Sounds good.Will definitely watch.
The story revolving around another point view sounds so much fun, I hope they could do a cross-over.
Is there any character from TWD that was left behind so the story could revolves around him.

My expectation for a Walking Dead spin off would be that it focus on people that are closer to the cause of the zombie apocalypse and offer answers to those questions. If the main series is about how the average person survives and lives in a world run over by zombies (i.e. like Night of the Living Dead and Dawn of Dead did), then the spin-off should be like Day of the Dead, and focus on what the military and the government are doing to survive and quench the uprising. Maybe even add some layers from Land of The Dead, and show how the rich and powerful have adjusted to living in a zombie-infested world.

It would be cool if it was based on a research center (no CDC) were we can learn more from the syndrome but at the same time they had to struggle to survive. Or an underground city (Similar to Zion on the Matrix) and also show their struggles. In any case, anything with Josh Stewart will suffice :),

OMG and they cancel adult shows, like the Killing, Breaking Bad, and other similar shows that make you use your brain to figure out….and make more inane silly blood, Gore, and dead creatures limping and crawling around
zombies, munmies, and juvenile comedy sit coms get renewed …. no wonder adults don’t watch TV anymore..18-49.watch ?- more like 8-19 yr olds, do adults really watch this childish drivel?

Almost every adult that I know and have come in contact with lately. Give me break, Breaking Bad did not require any figuring out. Great show but no real brain required. Just because you don’t happen to care for that type of show doesn’t mean that everyone that does is stupid or young.

umm… I’m 38, and I watch. I have many friends my age and some older who watch. I believe you might be misinformed. You may not watch it, and that’s ok… everyone is entitled to their opinion, but I think you may be wrong concerning your statement. :)

not a fan of spin offs,spin offs are not usually as good as the original and to me come across as forced or labored,i am more often disappointed than surprised after watching,but with that being said i do love the walking dead and the whole zombie genre,i will be willing to give this spin off a chance and hope for the best.i am curios about what another perspective on zombies could be. there are only so many scenarios you can play out in a zombie outbreak.

It will likely be something entirely different than a, “same synopsis, different characters” idea. I could be into it if it was pre-outbreak or significantly different. Otherwise I think I’ll just stick with TWD.

If this was a creatively sound idea I would be more enthused. But it’s a cash grab and the creator is implicit, and unless it takes place in a government setting – say, the collapse of DC and what happened to the president, etc, and the attempt to re-establish some semblance of America in a zombie apocalypse, I’m not sure I’m ready for a companion tale…Then again, I may be the only Walking Dead fan alive who both liked and agreed with the CDC storyline (yes, if I lived in ATL and the zombie apocalypse hit, I would also check out the CDC because it’s obvious and I would try anything to survive), so my hope for a behind-the-scenes political tale may be for nothing.

interesting, but could backfire… yet… would be awesome if they could do a series from the ZOMBIES’ perspective… what each one was like before being ‘turned’, while also following different herds off and on… how cool would that be!

I think setting the spinoff somewhere up north, where there are real winters would be interesting to explore. I think there have been two winters since the start of the zombie apocalypse – what happens to walkers when they freeze for months at a time?

I’d prefer to see this be a bunch of short stories about different groups of characters. I’d love to see stories set in different locations, from California, the Middle-East, China, remote islands, space (there were astronauts up there when the plague hit)… This would give them the freedom to tell the story about how there were nuclear meltdowns in Russia, or how Hawaii managed to stop infected people from arriving, resulting in the last place on Earth where nobody is infected.

I like the idea of a small section – or island – that has been able to avoid the outbreak . What are they doing to survive and not letting the zombies to take over while being isolated from the larger world .

I’m not liking the idea of a gov’t focus – would start off interesting , but would end up kinda stale. The new setting should be china , south America , or Africa ….

Totally agree!! I’d like to learn more about the characters we know and their back stories as well as how they all came together as a group, I like that idea too. Even if they do a movie or something about the characters we have come to know and care about and their pre-zombie world lives.

i wouldnt mind seeing a show that isnt based around the comic characters because then it will be really suspenseful rather than knowing exactly where its going; and it will be good to see how different people are dealing with the situation rather than the narrow view we get at the minute.

I like the macro idea, “government level, or with scientists.” Credit to Caiti for that idea.

It would be interesting to see if it could be done with different cast members or multiple cast changes, per season.

Other ideas:
“Follow an object” for a few episodes or a season; a weapon or anything dropped, lost or traded.
A military unit on “cleaner” duty.
A group of kids, surviving on their own.
A group of “anti-gunners.” That would only last maybe one episode; but it would be fun to watch.
A trade off: start with a normal person until bitten – follow them after they turn until they are killed, then follow that person until they are killed/turn, , , etc, etc, , , , maybe one episode on that one. I got dizzy just trying to explain it.

I’d like to see the new show follow one group first half of the season then a different group the second half of the season. They could do a different part of the country or different country each time. Show some of the safer places, but then like Rick said last week to Carl. You are never safe. And as Daryl said before the vet school run. It’s always the same, sooner or later you have to run.

The thing about starting with a group that has been in a safe area that gets over run is that we could see the sharp learning curve that goes into being a survivor. We have seen hints of people that don’t have a clue like Most of Woodbury population and the two young people that Rick and Carol ran into on their supply run.

Rick,s group has been in the ‘hot or red zone’ As the Governor mentioned in one of the early Woodbury ones to Merle. They hadn’t looked for supplies toward the prison area or the prison because it was over run. So areas with less population could get a big surprise when the massive herds from the cities wsnder into their area.

Whatever area they choose to cover in the spin off show I can’t wait. I also hope that it will air during the off seasons of Walking Dead so we have something ‘Dead’ to watch all year

Good story line…large city with survivors on top floors of highrises…zip lines and communication…some good, some bad buildings…working together in some cases, at odds over others….give me a call Kirkman, got a season full of ideas…

Spinoff? Cool. I would like to see it set in the Pacific Northwest and deal with the early days of the outbrake. A group of hard nosed realists vs a group of overeducated new age air heads(who all get killed… some by the realists)vs the walkers. The plot should have 3 lines: conflict between the realists and the airheads,conflict with the walkers,and dealing with the problems of infrastructure collapse.

stays and riEveryone is talking about the cash cow,how avout there are so many fans who want more walking dead? I wish there were more episodes per season. Its such a long wait til Oct. That said,if they kill Rick this week,i won’t care. Im too invested in the last 5 remaining originals plus Maggie and Beth. Ok and tyresse and michonne. Tara? What does she add? Nothing,zip,zero. Ridi,ulous to keep her. If, stays and rick dies,i wont have anything but shameless and nurse jackie. Maybe TURN. O and justified. But i was on nightwork and didnt know there had been a big discussion by fans on ricks demise. I worry cause he wasnt in four episodes and i thought they were measuring viewer reaction,to twd wo rick. Idk if i could watch if we loose him now. Fans do matter gimple. Comics have him alive,dont they?

I live the walking dead, & of course Rick ( Andrew Lincoln). I can’t wait to see what happens next.. Why do they (you) have to leave us in SUCH SUSPENSE.
love love love the walking dead I have all of the story up till now recorded and I watch it over and over. Especially when there isn’t any thing on. I give the show 100 stars if there was such a thing. I LOVE YOU RICK!!!